ladieswholarp

[ladieswholarp]

Where do I find a first timers meeting to LARP in Norfolk uk?

No idea! I don't know the Norfolk scene very well. But, posting here in case anyone who follows (and is still around, after blog silence for... too many years) knows more than me.

[ladieswholarp]

Even more badass ladies of Conquest of Mythodea. 

(Photos by Lukas Hamacher, and Marc Wehrmann)

[ladieswholarp]

Badass ladies of Conquest of Mythodea.

(Photos by Kerstin Henneken, Fovento, Lukas Hamacher, and Marc Wehrmann)

[ladieswholarp]

LARP Fashion UK. The actual fuck.

[ladieswholarp]

Non-Com? Not always

This is a recurring topic in LARP discussion groups the world over: who is considered a non-com and what do we do with them? In the early days of accessibility in LARP the assumption was that disabled players wouldn’t be involved in combat and would be a “non-com” player. Aside from the fact that this term can cause confusion when people also talk about non-com characters, the idea of non-com…

[ladieswholarp]

I am giving one custom Access Tag made by FiftyEleven Cabinetry, as a featured in yesterday’s blog post, to two winners. It will be customised to your needs and can be double sided.

What do you have to do to win?

Make a Facebook or Tumblr post explaining in a sentence what you like about Access:LARP, how it has helped you, or something you have learned from Access:LARP.

Tag Access:LARP in your post so I can find it.

All entries will be randomised and a winner selected at random

That’s it.

Rules:

Entries should be in before Midnight 31st August (British Summer Time)

You may only enter once per format i.e. one entry on Tumblr and one entry on Facebook for a total of two entries per person maximum

Contest is open internationally, postage will be paid

Make sure to tag @Access:LARP on Facebook or @accesslarp on Tumblr so I can find your entries

Winners will be announced no later than September 7th.

[ladieswholarp]

[two pictures of a credit card sized wooden tag on a piece of purple string. The first tag has the woodburned inscription “I have CFS and Lyme Disease. My fatigue is making things tough can I have a seat?” The second picture shows the reverse of the tag reading “My fatigue/pain is making it difficult to communicate right now, please bear with me.”]

These excellent wooden tags (or tag, this is two sides of the same tag) are made by cabinet maker Sabrina of Fiftyeleven Cabinetry. They were made specifically for me (which is why they mention CFS and Lyme Disease) to have IC at Empire LRP and other non-modern setting games.

They are inspired by the excellent tags and products of Stickman Communications, which are designed to aid people with chronic illnesses to explain things when they are having trouble communicating (or just want a quick reference to show people).  Sabrina, who plays, crews and runs LARPs, was asked to make some IC-looking tags by her partner to help manage her chronic illness at Empire LRP events. She then realised that she knew many other people in the LARP community who would benefit from them and her pyrography skills. She realised that many people appreciated having things that were helpful but didn’t stand out as OOC in IC spaces. 

“ I specifically make them double sided and a bit larger than credit card size so you can fit more complex sentences on. Each sentence is created by the person requesting them so they are all unique to the individuals needs. I also try to ensure that any NOT sentence is made so you can cover the not for when you actually do need it instead.”

The tags cost £5 each and are specifically priced so as to be as affordable as possible for those who need them. That price includes what ever custom text you have on them. She can even vary the font on them by request!

The tags (and any of Sabrina’s other excellent creations, from letter boxes to custom built beds!) can be bought via contact through the Fiftyeleven Facebook Page or through the Etsy Shop. She even takes her pyrography pen and a few blank tags to the Empire field for last minute customisation!

[ladieswholarp]

A group photo, taken before time in, of (some of) the spoonie LARPers at Empire LARP this weekend. Of course not everybody could make it or wanted to have their picture taken, but even with this small group I love the range of people, abilities, gender, age and character.  Photo by @tomgarnett

[ladieswholarp]

This is perfect timing, I was just thinking of doing another post about this.

The main points are all covered here - basically, take care of yourself out there, and remember everything’s going to take more energy - but there’s a couple more bits I’d add: > Remember, at Fest LARPs in particular, that sometimes there is not readily accessible running water. When it’s a Code Red, this can be even more of an issue, because your hands should really be clean when you’re dealing with that. Consider hand sanitiser or wet wipes.

If your hands aren’t covered in mud and gore, what are you even doing with your game? 

Photo by Tom Garnett from The Fall of Vusoria.

> Are you running an event? Consider if there’s anything you can do to help a player on their period. Recently I did a 24-hour time-in horror LARP set in a space prison, phys-repped by a warehouse in Glasgow. We were going to have basically no personal comforts. I was already prepared for being cold, hungry, uncomfortable, scared out of my mind, and having no sleep. Buuuut theeeen I did the special 28-day maths and let out the long, low “noooooo” of those who see unavoidable horror coming.

But! I mentioned it to a ref, and she basically went “OH NO”, and reassured me that I’d be fine to have my own supplies on me, and that the bathrooms would also be well stocked at all times, and that they’d not only carry additional painkillers, but would keep track of when I could take them - because, IC, we’d never know what the real time was. It was really reassuring to know they had my back and meant I could focus on IC concerns. Like xenomorphs.

See? What a load off.

Photo by Oliver Facey from Incarceration.

> If you are attending an event, take spare supplies with you. Even if it’s not due, because sometimes it will defy all laws of biology and show up just to spite you. (This has happened to me.) And because sometimes it will spite someone else, and they might be caught out as well. And because sometimes someone might already have guessed it was coming, and gotten supplies, but they vanish somewhere en route to the event and suddenly it’s time for the player briefing and where are your damn pads. 

(Are you guessing what has put this issue on my mind lately? Are you suspecting it’s a series of Incidents? YOU ARE CORRECT.)

IN SHORT: BE PREPARED, FOR YOURSELF AND UNTO OTHERS.

Stick to the blood of your enemies.

Photo by Oliver Facey from Projekt Ragnarok.

Dealing With Being on Your Period in a Field.

Because it is like, the worst.

Keep reading

[ladieswholarp]

Process Hack: Representation

Here’s a quick dit about representation and inclusivity in LARP.

Writing accessible, inclusive games is important. Having a clear, open accessibility policy is important. Improving accessibility in your own games and helping others improve theirs is important. Creating diverse, inclusive, welcoming settings and environments is important, and so is thinking about inclusivity etiquette and how you make it clear to your players that your environment welcomes them.

But representation - representation is VITAL.

I work in a profession which has, let’s be honest, a pretty poor history with LGBT+ issues. When I was starting to think about my transition, I was blessed with some hugely supportive, helpful, understanding colleagues and peers. They told me all sorts of things about how I’d be supported, welcomed, protected. How the process could be handled, how they’d provide the right balance of authority and autonomy, how they’d help defend my privacy. And I believed them; I trusted them; it helped, but… I was still very nervous, very anxious, and deep down, very convinced that I was soon to make a decision which would part me from a profession and a lifestyle I loved very, very much; because the two were simply incompatible - because the complexities and peculiarities involved in gender transition could simply not coexist with my profession. Because, no matter how good the chain of command could talk the talk, the profession, at large, would simply not walk the walk.

Then one day I sat in a big lecture hall full of other people in similar clothes, and a trans lady - about my age, about my seniority, who’d been through the same terrifying process I was staring down the loaded barrel of - stood up on stage. She spoke for about half an hour, and said a number of hugely helpful things, most of them targeted at the predominantly cisgender audience, about how to positively handle the challenges involved in commanding, leading and managing trans people in our profession. But one thing she said, right near the start of the talk, dropped my fucking jaw and left me feeling like someone just switched off the gravity.

She said “It wasn’t a big deal.”

She told the story of her coming out, in broad brushstrokes; the sort of preparations she’d made, a bit of personal history, the command climate, who knew and who didn’t. But that one line, and the context around me, was like the fucking sun coming up.

It wasn’t a big deal.

She could have been staring me right in the eye and speaking directly to my soul. I am like you; I am one of you; I have done the scary, intimidating, complex thing you’re about to do. It wasn’t a big deal. It went fine. You, LARPHacks, are going to be just fine. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. My own personal Julian of Norwich, standing up on stage with saint’s halo, a big cheesy grin and a photo of her in Afghanistan five years ago with an adam’s apple and stubble.

Any number of my cisgender colleagues and commanders could have told me the same thing, and I would have nodded politely and thanked them for the sentiment but deep down not believed them. And that is why representation is vital.

You can see a lot of really positive comments in the thread captured in the image above, from simple expressions of welcome and acceptance to helpful, practical advice about gendered ablutions. But the line that, I guarantee you, will have put a big fucking grin on the OP’s face and made them feel like yes, yes, this game is for me too! is the very simple and straightforward:

“I’m trans. I write for Empire.”

In those six words, @alchymistryandcoldsteel has put a spike in the tyre of every gnawing little anxiety that a trans potential-new-player might have about trying this LARP. She speaks with the voice of Authority; she is Established; and she is one of us, where the OP wasn’t even sure there was an “us” in this game.

There’s so much subtext in those six words - she’s conveying not only that she’s trans and in an authority position at the game, but that she is out publicly, and moreover, so comfortable in that position that she’s willing to tell people so on the internet; she frames it as a simple statement of fact; later in the post, she’s realistic, which helps convey trust and investment in her sentiments… it’s brilliant. It’s a game-changer.

Not everyone has the resource, the courage, the freedom or the support to be out and proud and to act as a representative; nobody should ever feel pressured to do so. But for those who do, and who have those opportunities, and who want to: please don’t ever be scared that you’re putting yourself forward or “showing off” or making a big deal of your status by simply Existing Publicly While A Trans LARPer (or as a queer LARPer, a LARPer of colour, a disabled LARPer, a female LARPer, etc). You may never know the impact you’ll have on some new young LARPer’s life, when they see you across a field and go oh my god they’re like me, I can be me, I can be me!. 

Those simple, deeply courageous acts of quiet, firm representation are like manna from heaven to the uncertain, the nervous, the will-I-be-welcome. And if you’re not in one of those categories, but are in a position to enable or encourage representation - in photos, in blog posts, in setting material - from those who are, fucking do it. Get there now. Your LARP needs you.

(I tore a ligament in my fucking ankle three weeks ago by not following my own goddamn advice at a LARP so I’m crotchety and have opinions on the internet. I shall not apologise. BEHOLD.)

[ladieswholarp]

Photo from Future’s End by Oliver Facey

[ladieswholarp]

Photos from Empire; photographs by Tom Garnett, Beth Dooner and Oliver Facey, each individually credited. Original quote by Kait Rokowski.

[ladieswholarp]

I have been hashtag blessed with LARPs and LARP portraits lately. These are all from games I have played or crewed within the last six months and I am very happy with the range of characters and settings on display here.

Portraits #1-5 are by Tom Garnett and are from Slayers, Regenesis, Happily Ever After (both #3 and #4) and the Fall of Vusoria.

Portrait #6 is by Beth Dooner and is from Empire.

Portraits #7 & #8 are by Oliver Facey and are from Incarceration and Forsaken.

[ladieswholarp]

Photo from Arkfall by Oliver Facey

[ladieswholarp]

get u a girl who can do both: a Versatility in LARP series

Photos from Dark Tempus by Oliver Facey and Rockets, Rayguns & Really Nice Tea by Rachel Thomas

[ladieswholarp]

Photo from Falling Down by Oliver Facey

[ladieswholarp]

get u a girl who can do both: a Versatility in LARP series

Photos from Empire and Odyssey by Oliver Facey